Makunouchi Ippo
Makunouchi Ippo (幕之内一歩 lit. Makunouchi Ippo) is the eponymous main protagonist of the anime, Hajime no Ippo. He is a Featherweight boxer from the Kamogawa Boxing Gym, the former JBC Featherweight Champion, and "unofficial champion" of the OPBF. History Early Life Not much is known in Ippo's early life, except for his childhood when his father died in a boat accident. Like at the present Ippo was a very shy, kind and obedient kid. He was also very strong willed and stubborn. During the time when his father (Kazuo) was missing out in the sea, Ippo went everyday to the shore to wait for his return. He believed his father's words that upon his return he will never leave Ippo and Hiroko again. Although his father never returned, Ippo was somehow able to satisfy himself that his father fulfilled his promise by finding the cap he wears during his father's departure. High School and Pro Debut One day when he was being tormented by Umezawa and his gang he was saved by Takamura (who was in the middle of his Road Work at the time). After that he began to take up boxing in order to learn what it means to be strong. After joining the Kamogawa Boxing Gym he meets Miyata Ichirou and has 2 sparring matches against him. In the first fight Ippo displays his impressive stamina but is still outright defeated, in the second fight however Ippo manages to hit Miyata's jaw with an uppercut and gains an unexpected KO victory. Becuase of this, Miyata leaves the gym in order to be able to face Ippo again in the Pro Ring, and the become each other's Eternal Rival. Ippo then takes the pro-boxer licensure exam and pass it with ease. After the test he meets Mashiba Ryou who is in the same weight class as him. Mashiba tells him to move another weight class, but Ippo does not yield and tells him that he want to fulfill his promise to Miyata that they would meet in the pro-ring again in the rookie kings tournament. Rookie King Tournament After winning two fights upon his debut as a pro-boxer, Coach Kamogawa enlisted him in the East Japan Rookie King Tournament. Ippo also had his own goal in the tournament which is to fight with Miyata in the Pro Ring for their tie-breaker match. With his goal, Ippo aims to reach the East Japan finals to full to a promised fight. Championship Road After winning the All Japan Rookie Tournament, Ippo found out his rival Miyata was going overseas. Ippo was left with no current goal at hand. Rehabilitating his hand from the injuries from his previous fight, Ippo rests from training and started supporting his fellow boxers at Kamogawa Gym in their fights. He then meets the current National Feather Weight Champion Date Eiji, who somewhat hints to him that in the future they may face each other since Ippo is already ranked number 10 upon winning the Rookie King Tournament. Ippo then realizes that he wants to fight the Champion and trains for his new goal. He finally took on the champion but couldn't make it, after his continuing streak, he lost. This affected him further more that it will be the last time he losses. Title Defenses as JBC Champion He then learned the Dempsey Roll and made a strong comeback, and after a few victories he finally climbed up again. This time around the champion being Sendou Takeshi which he fought before. After the fierce fight, Ippo finally obtains the National Japanese Featherweight Belt from Sendou. His new goal is to finally face Miyata. But that cannot happen due to the Dempsey Roll's weakness on being weak to counters and coach Kamogawa cancelled the match immediatelly. Ippo defended the title successfully overcoming his weakness, for seven consecutive times, and in-between fixing his weakness of the Dempsey Roll, with a faster-stopping rotation that the opponent fails to counter. Survival Match of Asian Champions Negotiations and declines between the two gyms, the match with Miyata gets canceled once more, both were ready to face each other but now Miyata was the one who stopped it. Miyata went to face the interim champion of the OPBF. Ippo lost his drive and thought of retiring from boxing. However with the help of Iimura Mari and the words of his friends and previous opponent, he was able to find his true goal which is to become strong and went back to Kamogawa Gym to continue Boxing. Kamogawa then tells Ippo to aim for the World, but having them cut off the shortest route of getting to the top rankings by beating the OPBF Champ Miyata, Kamogawa tells Ippo that he will take a different path, which is to defeat most of the National Champions in the Oriental Pacific, obtaining WBC & WBA ranking and also becoming an unofficial OPBF Champion. Upon doing so Takamura and the others noticed something wrong with Ippo during spars with Mashiba for example and his matches with the national champions, as if he got weaker. World Contender Finally after defeating the Indonesian, Filipino and the Thai national Featherweight champions, Ippo acquires a 7th ranking in the WBC, 8th in the WBA and also taking the title as the unofficial OPBF Champion. They send a challenge to the man ranked 2nd in the WBC and 3rd in the WBA, road to the world title begins. Appearance Ippo is relatively short, even by Japanese standards. He has black, shaggy hair, and his body, while being in the featherweight division, is stressed in the series as extremely muscular. In terms of skin tone Ippo is tanned, most likely from his work at the fishing boat store his family owns as well as his boxing roadwork. His eyes are dark/brown colored. Personality At the start of the series Ippo is a 16-year-old high school student. He is usually a kind and reserved person who dislikes fighting, and because of that he had been bullied since grade school. He has changed slightly but not a lot since his debut as a professional boxer. He has a sturdy body and steady legs thanks to years of working for his family's fishing boat rental, and he possesses great courage against all enemies. Coach Kamogawa puts him through strict training and the two of them have a strong teacher-student bond. Ippo trusts the coach and has faith in his teachings, while Kamogawa believes that Ippo may be the one who will eventually realize his World Championship dream. Takamura has said that Kamogawa seem more like Ippo's father than his coach, and because Ippo's father died when he was young he begins to view Kamogawa in that way. When it comes to love, Ippo is definitely a late bloomer, he is naive, pure-hearted, and awkward. He is in love with Mashiba Kumi whom he dates frequently, and she feels the same for him, but because of the silent pressure of Kumi's older brother Ryou, the "attacks" of reporter Iimura Mari and Itagaki Nanako, and the meddling of Takamura and the others, their relationship has yet to progress much. The one time Ippo confessed to her, Kumi had fallen asleep after drinking too much alcohol, and unfortunately she didn't hear it. Because of his personality, Ippo is seldom seen as being angry before a fight, even if his opponent insults him or his boxing skills. However, it has been shown on rare occasions that he is capable of displaying anger whenever an opponent says or does something to look down on the sport of boxing, which he loves. Such occasions have been when he saw Sawamura Ryuuhei intentionally commit fouls in his previous matches, despite having the upperhand, and then later on when he struck Kumi with a sharp jab, cutting her face. Another occasion has been most recently, when his opponent, Kojima, insulted his previous opponents, both in person and publicly in a magazine, and also insulting Coach Kamogawa teaching methods as they were fault. This resulted in Ippo displaying a new attitude, even going so far as to calmly state to Takamura, when asked if he would have any problems, that "this won't take long", referring to the match. Weaknesses Ippo is notoriously simple-minded. In nearly all of his matches, difficulties arose when his opponent did something he had not prepared for, such as Malcolm Gedo's Magic Punch and Wally's Corner Work. In fact, he lost the championship match with Date Eiji entirely because he failed to grasp how the champ was negating the power behind his punches. Interestingly, the few times Ippo did something his opponents didn't expect, he won the match (such as his southpaw stance in his first fight, or his brawling stance in his match with Kojima). Another weakness of Ippo's is the fact that he is predictable, to a degree. As explained by OPBF champion Miyata Ichiro, Ippo always steps forward and attacks head on, a trait that a cautious boxer could easily take advantage of. Because of his height, Ippo is at a perpetual disadvantage outside of close-range. He has no options but to move forward in every one of his fights. His short reach is arguably the main reason he lost to Alfredo Gonzales. In later of Ippo's experience it is stated by the coach that his signature move Dempsey Roll was not only a strength, but was also a weakness. The Dempsey Roll is weak against counters. He trains hard currently to develop the Dempsey Roll and also not to rely on it all the time, all to not lose again or else it will be his last time he steps inside the ring. Trivia *His given name Ippo means "one step", creating a pun in the series' title (as Hajime means "first", therefore "The First Step"). *Ippo's boxing style is said to be modeled after Mike Tyson and Hamada Tsuyoshi. His Dempsey Roll is named after the technique used by World Champion Jack Dempsey (ca. 1920s). *Though he is a 126 lb. featherweight, Ippo once knocked out someone from two weight classes higher than him with a single punch (making him flip backward through the air, no less), and can give Takamura, then a middleweight, trouble in an arm wrestling match. 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